The Official Authors' Hangout Halloween 2022 Contest Support Thread

[Duleigh]

Ooh I've had my regular hater of my writing complaining that my story was unreadable.

Is it really this bad?

"This is not a contest quality entry. It desperately needs to be proofed and edited. Within a quarter of the way down the first page there were already entire paragraphs full of sentences that aren't sentences, don't make sense, and have baffling punctuation. There are entire exchanges between characters with question marks at the end of each declarative statement leaving the reader to wonder what is going on. I reread the first mess of a paragraph at least three times before giving up and moving on, and the rest of the story is more of the same. It does not read coherently. It makes me wonder if the author's first language is English. It doesn't have to be, of course, but if it isn't, that's only more reason for a set of eyes with a better than tenuous grasp of the English language to proofread this. This story is illegible as it currently stands."

Wow I know I'm no James Patterson, but I thought it an interesting story.

Nice to see the love!

B

At least they left you a "love letter" My troll jumped on me with a solid 1 before it was up 6 hours without a single word of affection.

 

[TxRad]

My troll waits for my story to get to 4.2 before he drops his bombs. It's happened about four times now. Persistent little asshat.

 

[Lifestyle66]

Oh, my God! Someone just 4-bombed my story! Grrrrrr. Don't they realize what they've done by not LOVING it?

(sarcasm).

It's very much appreciated instead of the four 1's and a 2 out of the 57 ratings. It's actually doing very well at 4.33, being above 4 within the first week, and not having to wait for the 1-scraping.

 

[Northstar4695]

My story posted. When I opened it to make sure everything formatted correctly, I discovered I overlooked a missing word in the very first sentence. That will make a great first impression. Sad face.

 

[HBuff]

Well, this is it! My first entry in a Literotica contest!
I had fun writing this! After so many non-consent stories (only one published here), it feels great to write a scene where the woman removes her clothes of her own free will! Erotic Couplings it is!

 

[DarkRaven13]

My story posted. When I opened it to make sure everything formatted correctly, I discovered I overlooked a missing word in the very first sentence. That will make a great first impression. Sad face.

But you got the story done and there is that .

I have turned in my story and when I looked found way more errors that should have been there. So ... when I read others, if the mistakes are minor and infrequent I overlook them.

 

[Emotional]

Is there a place to see the lists and the current scores, or do you have to go through each story?

 

[KeithD]

Is there a place to see the lists and the current scores, or do you have to go through each story?

Here for the current list of contest stories: https://www.literotica.com/stories/contest.php/halloween-2022

But, no, current scores are not included. You have to check on each story (and that number most likely won't be a current one).

 

[Duleigh]

Is there a place to see the lists and the current scores, or do you have to go through each story?

They don't post a running tally, and even if you went to each story and looked, just before the final day they will run a "sweep" and scores can change drastically.

 

[Emotional]

Explain the sweep please

 

[DarkRaven13]

I've been slowly making my way through the various stories ... but more and more get added and its hard to keep up. But on that note, its wonderful to see so many of them!

 

[NotWise]

Explain the sweep please

Literotica has a fraud detection system. It's used periodically to remove votes that it deems to be fraudulent. That's called a sweep. Sweeps will be run after the contest closes and especially right before the winners are determined.

The fraud detection system can remove any vote, regardless of score, but the common result is an increase in story ratings.

 

[Kethandra]

I actually have a story for this contest. It was a third one started after two other Halloween ones were making nice progress. The Tertiary task wins again. It just needs a title and a category.

 

[Duleigh]

Explain the sweep please

There was a sweep just before the Halloween contest began, I'm not sure what the algorithm does or how it works, but to me it seems like if there's a vote that's far out of the average it will remove it. If you have a lot of 4s and 5s and there's a 1 one bomb in there the sweep will remove that hate vote. Sometimes it makes a big difference. I had a story with about 30 votes, the sweep came by and took one vote, and my score jumped a full tenth from 4.55 to 4.65

 

[MillieDynamite]

When I last checked my story yesterday, it had a 4.8something rating. First thing this morning, with one additional vote, it was a4 4.5. I looked a bit ago, and it has recovered a little.

 

[HBuff]

It can be worse than just once.

This... My story was at 4.44 after 33 votes. Then, 12 votes later, it has dropped to 3.89. That's impressive!
I quickly calculated that those last 12 votes carry an average of 2.42.

I still had plenty of fun writing the story, especially the sex scene!
Good luck to all!

 

[MelissaBaby]

Well, I'm out for this year. My laptop shit the bed and I lost everything but a very rough first draft. There is no way I have the time or the energy to rewrite it before the deadline.

But, on the other hand, I'll be good to go for next year.

 

[Duleigh]

When I last checked my story yesterday, it had a 4.8something rating. First thing this morning, with one additional vote, it was a4 4.5. I looked a bit ago, and it has recovered a little.

This... My story was at 4.44 after 33 votes. Then, 12 votes later, it has dropped to 3.89. That's impressive!

Same thing happened to me, a story written using characters and settings that usually net 4.7 or higher in a half dozen previous stories got slammed by the uno-bomber and is crawling back slowly. We can only hope that the sweep helps some of that.

 

[Bazzle]

My one bomb dropped mine from 4.25 to 3.9. depressing being the wrong side of 4.

 

[DarkRaven13]

My one bomb dropped mine from 4.25 to 3.9. depressing being the wrong side of 4.

Oh no. Too many people are getting those. I thought your story was great.

 

[Rustyoznail]

Unfortunately, getting indiscriminately dive bombed is part of the territory.

 

[Bazzle]

Oh no. Too many people are getting those. I thought your story was great.

Appreciate the positivity. I'm not getting enough votes with this one. Hey ho!
Will try harder!

 

[MillieDynamite]

Same thing happened to me, a story written using characters and settings that usually net 4.7 or higher in a half dozen previous stories got slammed by the uno-bomber and is crawling back slowly. We can only hope that the sweep helps some of that.

In the past 24 hours, there have been 4 or 5 votes. I'm still short of the necessary mark to even qualify for the contest. It seems unchanged from the 4.67 it had climbed to after the one bomb, so guessing a few 4s and a few 5s.

 

[DarkRaven13]

In the past 24 hours, there have been 4 or 5 votes. I'm still short of the necessary mark to even qualify for the contest. It seems unchanged from the 4.67 it had climbed to after the one bomb, so guessing a few 4s and a few 5s.

I would vote for you again if I could!

 

[MillieDynamite]

I would vote for you again if I could!

That's very sweet of you. Winning isn't the point for me. Competing is fun, but watching the scores just upset me. Not because I think I might win but because you become hooked on score-watching, which takes the fun out of the whole thing for me. it also takes away from my writing time.